Carousel

This spring Angel Records launched a new series of soundtrack releases: Classic Musicals. Therefore it is highly appropriate that to coincide with the newly restored DVD releases, the first three albums be devoted to big-screen adaptations of musicals by the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Carousel was adapted into a film a year after Oklahoma! stormed the box office. Shot in Cinemascope 55, it was released just four months before another Rodgers and Hammerstein adaptation was to be released: The King and I. Starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones (who had both just starred in Oklahoma! the previous year), Carousel follows the "taboo" romance between Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan.

For this new release, additional cues including some that didn't even appear in the film are included. Beginning with "Introduction" and "Main Title: "The Carousel Waltz", the album contains (unlike the film) "You're A Queer One, Julie Jordan". "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" is definitely a classic, and now we have the previously unreleased ballet to accompany this track. As with The Sound of Music's "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", the high-inspiration emotional song from Carousel has got to be "You'll Never Walk Alone". It's stirring and powerful even 54 years after it was first heard on Broadway.

As a bonus, the original LP version of "The Carousel Waltz" is included. The sound quality for this album is surprisingly good, although there might be a bit of hiss from the analog sources. But it doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the album. The liner notes by Didier C. Deutsch and Charles L. Granata (the producers of the album) are extensive and insightful. It's a high quality release that runs 70-minutes long, and should grace the collection of any musical fan.